Deerfield Considers Beach Parking Fee

Motorists from nearby cities bound for the beach in Deerfield Beach may find it difficult to find a parking space in this city if a proposed beachfront parking plan is put into effect.

A new plan to make more beachfront parking available to city residents while charging out-of-towners for parking privileges is being reviewed by the Deerfield Beach City Commission.

The proposed city ordinance would require purchase of an annual $10 parking sticker for resident and non-resident parking on two beachfront streets. It would also hold 150 parking spaces in two municipal lots for residents only during daylight hours.

In the past, several other plans, including parking meters along the beachfront, have been discussed and then discarded as unworkable.

``Every suggestion made had some major drawback,`` said Vice Mayor Joseph Tractenberg, as he introduced his parking plan to the City Commission. ``(This one) seems so simple, you wonder why it was never thought of before.``

Many non-resident beach users live in neighboring Broward and Palm Beach County cities, including Coral Springs, Coconut Creek and Boca Raton, and Tractenberg said the plan is aimed at them without keeping them away entirely. Under the plan, both residents and non-residents would be allowed to purchase parking stickers. Different colored stickers would be issued to each group.

Sticker parking for both residents and non-residents would start in the 200 block of State Road A1A and continue south along Northeast 21st Avenue to the city limits. About 10 spaces in the parking lot at the North Beach Pavilion, which is at the northern boundary according to the plan, would also be open to both groups.

Two municipal parking lots, one behind the fire station in the first block of Southeast 21st Avenue and the other on the beach between Southeast Eighth Street and Ninth Street, are also included in the plan.

Both lots have a total of about 150 spaces and would be available to residents only between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. Everyone would be able to use the lots at other times.

``All this is coming to a head for one reason: ``Our residents feel there`s not enough places to park because the outsiders are usurping it,`` Tractenberg said.

Tractenberg said tourist business would not be affected because vacationers would park at the hotels and motels where they were registered. But other beachgoers without stickers would have to find parking on city side streets.

``All side streets have parking, but it`s going to be at a premium,`` Tractenberg said. ``We recognize that.``

In the past, some residents have suggested restricting all beachfront parking to city dwellers. But this could threaten grant money the city gets for beach restoration projects, including an ongoing $37,500 allocation from Broward County. Tractenberg said his plan is fair to both groups.

``If we favor our own people it might jeopardize that grant, so we want to be even-handed,`` Tractenberg said.

Tractenberg said the proposal could generate $50,000 annually, part of which would be used for parking enforcement. Violators would pay a $25 fine.

The ordinance is scheduled for review by the City Commission June 18. Following a public hearing, the ordinance could go into effect as early as August.

Tractenberg said the 4,000 city residents who already paid for $5 stickers this year would not be required to buy $10 stickers until 1986. Non-residents would also be allowed to purchase $5 stickers until then.